Large-scale document authentication and identification system

• US 8,976,003 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2009
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Corbin, George E., Grech, Anthony, Murphy, Thomas E. Jr., Nelson, Mark, Peters, Kevin H.
• Primary Examiner(s): KING, CURTIS J
• Application Number:
  US12/564,993
• Publication Number:
  US 20110072272A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,994 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 340/5.6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures

Abstract

Computer-implemented methods, systems, and computer program products for document authentication and identification using a large-scale distributed system are provided. A method includes receiving a digitized document at a trusted system managed by a trusted third-party that is separate from a creator of content in the digitized document. The digitized document is compared to a set of markers to determine whether the digitized document includes one or more of the markers, and in response thereto, information associated with the one or more markers is extracted using a decoder on the trusted system according to encoding strategies. The method further includes generating a comparison registration identifier on the trusted system as a summary of the extracted information and the one or more markers, and comparing the comparison registration identifier with a stored registration identifier in an encoding history via the trusted system to authenticate and identify the received digitized document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for encoding identification information in a document using a large-scale distributed system, comprising:

receiving a digitized document at a trusted system of the large-scale distributed system, the trusted system managed by a trusted third-party separate from a creator of content in the digitized document;

creating a set of markers associated with identification information;

selecting an encoding strategy to apply the set of markers to the digitized document as identifying tags;

applying the set of markers to the digitized document according to the encoding strategy using an encoder on the trusted system to produce a registration identifier uniquely identifying the digitized document, the encoding strategy including masking regions of the digitized document as areas to avoid applying the encoding strategy based on determining that the regions of the digitized document are expected to be modified; and

storing the registration identifier in an encoding history via the trusted system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the digitized document is received at the trusted system from a remote system of the large-scale distributed system.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

scanning a physical copy of the digitized document as a scanned image; and

creating the digitized document by applying optical character recognition (OCR) logic to the scanned image.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting the set of markers based on attributes associated with the digitized document, the attributes comprising one or more of;

author, originator, content, sender, recipient, location of the recipient, and a creation time stamp.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing a record of the set of markers and the selected encoding strategy associated with the registration identifier in the encoding history.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

outputting an encoded document as an encoded version of the digitized document associated with the registration identifier, wherein the encoded document is generated by the encoder, the encoded document retains semantic content of the digitized document absent permission to modify the semantic content of the digitized document, and the encoder further performs one or more of;

replacing one or more characters;

reordering one or more words, phrases, or sentences;

inserting a signature quote; and

modifying sentence syntax for at least one sentence in response to receiving permission to modify the semantic content of the digitized document.

7. A computer-implemented method for document authentication and identification using a large-scale distributed system, comprising:

receiving a digitized document at a trusted system of the large-scale distributed system, the trusted system managed by a trusted third-party separate from a creator of content in the digitized document;

comparing the digitized document to a set of markers to determine whether the digitized document includes one or more of the markers;

in response to determining that the digitized document includes one or more of the markers, extracting information associated with the one or more markers from the digitized document using a decoder on the trusted system according to encoding strategies, the encoding strategies including masking regions of the digitized document as areas to avoid extracting information from the digitized document, the masking regions formed based on determining that the masking regions of the digitized document are expected to be modified;

generating a comparison registration identifier on the trusted system as a summary of the extracted information and the one or more markers; and

comparing the comparison registration identifier with a stored registration identifier in an encoding history via the trusted system to authenticate and identify the received digitized document.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the digitized document is received at the trusted system from a remote system of the large-scale distributed system.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

selecting the set of markers based on attributes associated with the digitized document, the attributes comprising one or more of;

author, originator, content, sender, recipient, location of the recipient, and a time stamp.

10. A system for large-scale document authentication and identification, comprising:

a trusted system managed by a trusted third-party separate from a creator of content in a digitized document, the trusted system comprising;

an encoder configured to execute on a processing unit and perform a method comprising;

receiving the digitized document;

creating a set of markers associated with identification information;

selecting an encoding strategy to apply the set of markers to the digitized document as identifying tags, the encoding strategy including masking regions of the digitized document as areas to avoid applying the encoding strategy based on determining that the regions of the digitized document are expected to be modified;

applying the set of markers to the digitized document according to the encoding strategy to produce a registration identifier uniquely identifying the digitized document; and

storing a record of the registration identifier, the set of markers, and the encoding strategy associated with the digitized document as encoding history; and

a decoder configured to execute on the processing unit and perform a method comprising;

receiving a returned digitized document;

comparing the returned digitized document to the set of markers to determine whether the returned digitized document includes one or more of the markers;

in response to determining that the returned digitized document includes one or more of the markers, extracting information associated with the one or more markers from the returned digitized document according to the encoding strategy;

generating a comparison registration identifier as a summary of the extracted information and the one or more markers; and

comparing the comparison registration identifier with the stored registration identifier in the encoding history to authenticate and identify the returned digitized document.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

optical character recognition (OCR) logic, the OCR logic configured to execute on the processing unit and create the digitized document and the returned digitized document from one or more scanned images of one or more physical documents; and

a document processing application configured to execute on the processing unit and provide interfaces to the encoder, decoder, and OCR logic.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the digitized document is received at the trusted system from a remote system of the large-scale distributed system.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the set of markers is selected based on attributes associated with the digitized document, the attributes comprising one or more of:

author, originator, content, sender, recipient, location of the recipient, and a time stamp.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the encoder is further configured to perform one or more of:

replacing one or more characters, reordering or replacing words or phrases, reordering one or more sentences, inserting a signature quote, and modifying sentence syntax for at least one sentence in response to receiving permission to modify the semantic content of the digitized document; and

the decoder is further configured to determine that the one or more markers comprise at least one of;

one or more replaced characters, one or more reordered sentences, an inserted signature quote with information encoded in characters of the signature quote, and a modified sentence syntax with the information encoded in a modified location.

15. A computer program product for document identification and authentication using a large-scale distributed system, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for implementing a method, the method comprising;

receiving a digitized document at a trusted system of the large-scale distributed system, the trusted system managed by a trusted third-party separate from a creator of content in the digitized document;

creating a set of markers associated with identification information;

selecting an encoding strategy to apply the set of markers to the digitized document as identifying tags, the encoding strategy including masking regions of the digitized document as areas to avoid applying the encoding strategy based on determining that the regions of the digitized document are expected to be modified;

applying the set of markers to the digitized document according to the encoding strategy using an encoder on the trusted system to produce a registration identifier uniquely identifying the digitized document; and

storing a record of the registration identifier, the set of markers, and the encoding strategy associated with the digitized document as encoding history.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a returned digitized document at the trusted system;

comparing the returned digitized document to the set of markers to determine whether the returned digitized document includes one or more of the markers;

in response to determining that the returned digitized document includes one or more of the markers, extracting information associated with the one or more markers from the returned digitized document according to the encoding strategy;

generating a comparison registration identifier on the trusted system as a summary of the extracted information and the one or more markers; and

comparing the comparison registration identifier with the stored registration identifier in the encoding history via the trusted system to authenticate and identify the returned digitized document.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the digitized document and the returned digitized document are received at the trusted system from one or more remote systems of the large-scale distributed system.